Written in a distinctive voice, with the soul and rhythm of the blues, Judith
Podell's stories cover a range of obsessions that include the best of 20th
Century angst: cigarettes, psychoanalysis, sex, love, death, and cats.

Working in the same tradition of Woody Allen, Grace Paley and Nora
Ephron, Podell's observations about life, love and loss would be
heartbreaking if they weren't so funny.

The title story, “Blues for Beginners,” a riff on how to write the blues, struck such a familiar chord when it was originally published, it was instantly claimed by the world at large as something that belonged to all of us.

Throughout the other 9 stories, Podell continues to hit all the right notes -- bringing us characters we all might have known and situations we might have been in ourselves. If we’d been lucky enough to live in Greenwich Village in the 70s. Or Washington, DC in the 80s.

Did you know that focusing on the negative aspects of things could actually make more negative things appear in your life?
If you’re serious about living a happy, healthy and abundant life, the key is to change your thoughts. Take control of those negative thoughts and emotions and turn them around. Find affirmations that help you stick to a positive frame of mind, and then repeat them until you feel more confident about them.
It makes no difference what aspect of your life you consider, there’s always something to be grateful for.
“For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart” - Hebrews 4:12 New King James Version.
God bless you!

FOLLOW HER VOICE

Nine strangers, linked by the inner whisperings of a mysterious little girl. Each must piece together the origins of their other-worldly abilities and the location of the white manor, where they will be reunited, and the questions that have plagued their existence will finally be answered. But someone else marks their every step. The sinister Mr Cradleworth has other plans for them, plans that could bring about catastrophic consequences, not just for earth, but the whole universe.

This epic tale covers half the globe, as it follows each character into the darkest recesses of their soul. Combining eighties-style horror with science fiction, this dark fantasy will take you on a journey you will never forget.

Hades, the Lord of the Underworld, has no patience for the living or his Olympian brethren. His purpose is order, administering justice to those who enter his realm, and keeping the balance decreed by the Fates. Meeting Persephone sways his focus, her gentle sweetness threatening his control. But he will not be tempted.

Hades awakens something within the Goddess Persephone. She feels no fear from his brooding presence. In truth, she's never felt so alive. Every stolen moment together only confirms her instinct: he is meant to be hers. Such a powerful union will face opposition - from Olympus, her troubled betrothed, the Fates, even Hades himself. But she is determined to win his heart.

Poseidon's scheming wreaks havoc upon Persephone. Hades has no choice - he must rescue her.

Life holds no surprises for Devon Murphy. Her life consists of keeping tabs on her aging Irish father, working part time at a coffee shop, and building her online graphics design business. Devon’s only tricky situation is a shallow relationship with the pampered and affluent Michael Turner, who sees her as just another woman to conquer.

Following his father’s death, Brandon’s only goal is to expand the family business and live life on his own terms. That is, until he walks into the coffee shop one snowy evening and meets the enchanting, red-haired barista behind the counter. But can Devon and Brandon’s attraction for each other be strong enough to help erase their deepest disappointments and renew their faith in God?

From Kirkus Award-Winning Author Cidney Swanson

In the first book of urban mystery fused with fantasy series, M.E. Purfield with hardcore prose introduces a young heroine that's naively above the law and searching for redemption in a concrete jungle built on greed and delusion.

Miki Radicci is not your average sixteen-year-old city girl. She's emancipated from her grifter parents, a flavor of the month in the art world, and a psychic.

Her life turns upside down when she witnesses a murder of a young college girl in one of her visions. Not only does she grab the attention of the police, but also the killer.

To save her own life as well as her family, Miki delves into the victim's past and follows a trail that leads her into a dark world of underground modeling and low-level criminals. A path that will lead her closer to the killer than she thought.

Business-school student April Morgan is ready to graduate--from school, from the secretary pool, and from never-gonna-happen fantasies involving Sam Hunt, her hunky billionaire boss. But when Sam’s girlfriend of the week pushes her too far, April finds herself quitting on the spot with only a mountain of student loan debt to keep her company. In steps Sam’s worst enemy, his father, with a job offer she can't refuse.

Sam was born into privilege, but refused to live life with a silver spoon in his mouth. After a decade of hard work, he’s on the verge of taking his business public and proving to his tyrannical family that he can make it without their help. When he finds out that April is working for his father, he knows she’s been turned into a pawn in his father’s twisted games.

Despite Sam’s warnings, April is determined to prove she doesn’t need him to make in New York City. But when she finds documents that could lead to Sam losing everything he’s worked for, April realizes that she and Sam have to work together to save the empire they’ve both worked to build.

In a small southern town where everyone normally knows each other’s business, veteran detective Larry Robbins must solve the disappearance of eighty-year-old widower, African-American George Beason.

When evidence arises that Beason may have left town on his own, it would be easy for Robbins to close the case, but his gut instinct tells him more’s at stake. As he uncovers clues about Beason’s deceased wife and his estranged daughter, Robbins must untangle conflicting motives and hidden agendas to bring Beason home alive.

Quick Silver Ranch is no ordinary dude ranch.

After Becca Dalton finds her fiancé in bed with her boss, she ends the ill-fated engagement on the spot and quits her job. She heads to Quick Silver Ranch, looking to regroup before an interview for the job of her dreams--an executive position at a five-star hotel.

Becca's best-laid plans are ruined when she discovers the exclusive ranch is for consenting couples who spend their days and nights exploring their most wicked sexual fantasies. For Becca to remain at the ranch and take advantage of all the arousing activities, she needs a partner.

Her sexy college lover and part owner of the ranch, Tyler Carson, is willing to break all the rules, partner up with Becca and have her roped and ready for a week of unimaginable pleasure. But is a week enough to satisfy his desire for Becca?

Jet is a 19-year-old skag, one of the humans still living free on Earth following an invasion of creatures called the Nirreth. Squatting in the ruins of Vancouver, Jet and her family eke out an existence underground, hiding from culler ships and fighting off raiding humans.

No one knows where the alien ships take the people they steal, but they never return. When a culler finds Jet, she may discover the truth the hard way...and end up living among the very creatures that stole her planet and wiped out most of her race.

"Just think of it as a bad haircut." Hubert watched the surgeon hold up a sterile bag of circumcision tools. "A week from now you won't feel a thing."

For geeky teenager, Hubert Pubes Rawlings, his new job as a shopping center food court cleaner is one thing, but a picture with the hot cleaning crew exposing him as the only cleaner who's uncut is too much, too fast. When his obscure mother stresses over his nightly dream adventures then catches his father in a single handed affair, she insists Hubert undergo a circumcision. “It’s all about sensitivity, dear. I certainly don’t want you to do like daddy does.”

Meanwhile, because of the picture, Hubert's popularity has soared. His best friend, Will, tries to convince him that it’s a good thing. That may be fine for Will to say, but for Hubert, it's simply not the case.

With the circumcision complete, Hubert struggles with his popularity among the food court hotties. Will's constant encouragement and the cleaning crew's threatening jealousy adds to his problems—not to mention having to keep his secret of being Circumcised at Seventeen.

Shameless #1 - Trey Turner may be topping the country music charts, but his life has been going downhill since his wife left him five years ago. He's desperate to make amends for the mistakes he's made and convince Sierra their love deserves a second chance.

Sierra Brooks is happy for the first time since her divorce. She has a career she loves, and a man who loves her. Unfortunately, the man she intends to marry isn't the only one professing his love for her. He may be able to offer her safety and security, but will she decide to risk everything for another chance with the man who broke her heart?

Fearless #2 - Lexi Brooks overcame adversity to build a successful real estate business that allows her to live life on her terms. She envisions travel, fun, and excitement, not marriage, kids, and commitment. But will Trey's sexy bodyguard, Josh, throw a wrench into her plans?

Being a cop has taught Josh Cooper to take calculated risks, but he's tired of living with the daily threat of danger. He's ready to settle down with someone who wants to be a step-mother to his two teenage sons. Too bad Lexi isn't that woman. She's sexy, smart, head-strong, and they're totally in sync in the bedroom, but she isn't willing to settle into a life of domestic bliss. Or is she?

Ruthless #3 - Marisa Turner has wanted her brother's best friend, Luc, forever. But she also wants a baby and it seems Luc isn't up to the challenge. She has to choose between the man she loves and the family she hopes to have. Fortunately, there's another man waiting in the wings to make her baby fantasy a reality.

Luc Spencer is tired of hearing about marriage and babies. He loves Marisa, but he can't promise her forever. After two years together, she tells him it's over. He's not worried, he believes she'll be back. But what will happen when he finds out there's another man ready and willing to give Marisa everything he can't?

Reckless #4 - As a publicist, Avery Collins knows that mixing business with pleasure is a recipe for disaster so she has one rule. Her bedroom is off limits to clients, no matter how enticing and persistent they may be.

Ty McCall is country music’s newest rising star, but he needs the best team in the business to help him make it to the top. That team includes Avery, who gave him the most unforgettable night of his life only to disappear the next morning.

Avery agrees to work with him, but Ty isn’t willing to settle for a professional relationship with the woman of his dreams. Can this sexy cowboy convince her that rules were made to be broken?

Poised to become her overbearing father's right-hand man, Jaye Davis is tired of being a faceless drone, writing software. She’d rather help real people—like her clients who own a struggling glassblowing factory. While she’s there, she might even discover who she really is.

Mitch Blake and his father keep butting heads about expanding Blake Glassware, and now Mitch has to deal with his father’s consultant, Jaye. She claims online marketing will boost sales, but Mitch insists broadening their product line will increase revenue. Arguing with this doe-eyed woman makes one thing perfectly clear: she has the power to shatter his safe but lonely life.

Jaye is caught between the father counting on her to run their business in the future, an ex-boyfriend who understands her past, and the solemn glassblower who wants her now, just as she is. Is she strong
enough to be honest about what she really wants?

My name is Haley Macknight, and I've finally escaped my marriage from hell. But my husband, Jude Macknight, has murder on his mind. He will stop at nothing to get me back. Even from a distance, he's controlling the course of my life. It's only a matter of time before he finds me. Before he kills me.

Quote from book:

From the moment I'd entered Jude's life, he had managed mine. He'd ordered me, albeit with the illusion of gentleness at first, to do what he wanted. He'd molded me into the kind of woman that fit into his life. I had offered him my freedom in exchange for security, and then love. Freedom was a high price to pay, but one often finds that out too late.

Hate is a powerful word, especially when you're using it against your own reflection.

In fourteen-year-old Lacey Steele's world, being "skinny" equals no more caustic remarks comparing her to Shamu the Whale, meriting the attention of her ten-year crush aka the beautiful quarterback next door, and finally deserving her distant mother's love- pretty much goddess status. But diets, nor health food, nor exercise bring Lacey desired results and her future looks everlastingly chubby.

Unexpectedly, Lacey and her friend Ashley stumble on an easier method. Extreme calorie cutting may seem a little drastic, but of course it's better than ... an eating disorder. Unfortunately, the easy route has a price neither girl planned to pay, but it comes due anyway, for one of them.

A story of hope and eventual acceptance, Skinniness is Next to Goddessness? Lacey's Story, takes a brighter approach to an age old tale.

The eleven long short stories in "Sewing Can Be Dangerous and Other Small Threads" combine history, mystery, action and/or romance, and range from drug trafficking using Guatemalan hand-woven wallets, to an Antebellum U.S. slave using codes in her quilts as a message system to freedom; from an ex-journalist and her Hopi Indian maid solving a cold case together involving Katchina spirits, to a couple hiding Christian passports in a comforter in Nazi Germany; from a wedding quilt curse dating back to the Salem Witchcraft Trials, to a mystery involving a young seamstress in the infamous Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire; from a 1980’s Romeo and Juliet romance between a rising Wall Street financial ‘star’ and an eclectic fiber artist, to a Haight-Asbury love affair between a professor and a beautiful macramé artist gone horribly askew, just to name a few.

A best-selling fantasy adventure set in an Ancient World where the myths, the monsters and the Gods are real...and humanity's only hope lies in a hero who can bring a barbarian's strength and philosopher's dry wit to desperate situations. Best-seller in Alternative History! Top Seller in Greek/Roman Mythology!

Multiple-genre author C.B. Pratt* brings a HERO FOR HIRE to life. Armed with a wry voice and a swift sword, Eno the Thracian finds his simple mission to rid an island of a harpy turns into a mystery that shakes the throne of Zeus Himself. With both Hekate, Witch Queen of the Underworld, and Aphrodite, Goddess of Desire, taking a ‘personal’ interest in Eno, the secrets he doesn't even know himself will become unexpectedly important if he is to overcome the Undead Army that threatens the entire world.

Gigi Bassano
Young. Beautiful. Idealistic. Proud. Gigi was raised outside the Andrade clan, but it has left her with an ache she cannot deny. When she’s invited to her brothers’ weddings, she refuses at first, then changes her mind and attends without telling anyone. She won’t let herself love them, but she can’t stay away. It’s a recipe for disappointment and heartbreak.
Especially when she throws herself at her brother’s best friend, Kane.

Kane Sander
Sexy, rich, loyal, protective. He shouldn't want her. But he will.
He should stay away from her. But he won’t.

Love doesn’t follow anyone’s rules. Deny it. Run from it. Love always finds a way.

"You are the Bridge..."

In a modern-day Earth much like ours, Allie spent her life distancing herself from Seers, a second race discovered on Earth and enslaved by human beings. After getting in trouble with the law and with her own race in question, Allie manages to pick up a new stalker even as events in her life start to spiral out of control.

Yanked out of her life by the mysterious Revik, Allie discovers that her blood may not be as "human" as she always thought, that the world is nothing like it appears to be...and she has far more in common with Seers than she ever wanted to believe.

When Revik tells her she's the Bridge, a mystical being meant to usher in the evolution of the human race--or possibly its extinction--Allie realizes there's no going back.